The field of the present invention is apparatus for dispensing beverages and, in particular, handheld bar guns for dispensing a number of different beverages from the same device.
Bar guns that provide an operator with the ability to dispense a number of different beverages by selecting among buttons are common in the bar service industry. Typical mechanical handheld bar guns have valves that dispense pressurized liquid through a discharge spout when an appropriate button is depressed. Each valve normally has a valve seat including an O-ring, a valve element and a retainer spring that holds the valve element biased against the seat. The button is depressed with sufficient force to overcome the spring force closing the valve to dispense liquid. Once the valve is open, the pressurized liquid flows through the valve and out of the discharge spout into, for example, a glass for serving. Typically the bar gun is supplied with syrup, carbonated water and noncarbonated water. A single button is commonly linked mechanically to both a syrup valve and either a carbonated water valve or a non-carbonated water valve to simultaneously dispense two liquids to obtain an appropriate mixture thereof.
Prior bar guns have been designed with one button for each beverage selection with multiple of the buttons depressing either the same carbonated or non-carbonated water valve. Early on, bar guns typically had four buttons for four different beverages and the handling thereof was reasonably manageable. More recently, however, greater numbers of carbonated and noncarbonated fruit, tea and other flavored beverages have become popular. As a result, the present-day bar gun commonly has eight to fourteen buttons. To accommodate the additional buttons, bar guns have grown larger and bulkier.
The size of the current bar guns create handling problems. For example, an operator oftentimes must adjust hand positions to depress the appropriate buttons for dispensing different beverages. Such adjustments make one-hand operation more difficult. Further, with greater numbers of women in the bar service industry today, it is not uncommon for the operator to use both hands to operate a bar gun. To further complicate use, a typical bar gun has buttons which are quite close together. This is to provide the selection now demanded. The operator must take care not to accidentally depress more than one button. Even so, the reach required to cover all of the buttons additionally can cause multiple buttons to be pushed.
Another common problem associated with conventional mechanical bar guns is the poor visibility of the buttons and the identification of the beverage associated with those buttons. Decals have been positioned atop or adjacent to the buttons for identification. However, bar guns are typically used in poorly lit environments, such as in bars or nightclubs, where decals have limited effectiveness. In an attempt to overcome this problem, some bar guns have employed larger buttons and larger decals. However, using large buttons usually results in reducing the spacing between buttons. Again, it becomes difficult to avoid depressing more than one button at a time.
Typical bar gun installations provide carbonated water at approximately 100 psi. This may also be true for the noncarbonated water. The syrup, on the other hand, is provided at a lower pressure, that of 50 to 60 psi. This disparity in pressure and mechanical linkage issues can result in the tendency that the syrup valve opens before the water valve. Therefore, unless the operator rapidly presses the bar gun button, an excessive amount of syrup can be dispensed. This tendency to bleed syrup before the water valve is opened also can impact on the taste where adjacent buttons are partially open due to the arrangement of the buttons as discussed above.